Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #429
Anne: Hello Everyone! Have we all survived New Year's? Today is the last day of my "vacation", and I seriously had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning, at 10am 😁. Before I was married, I used to be able to sleep until 2pm, and the only reason I got up was because I needed to eat.
We've reached the end of the year and the beginning of a new one a lot faster than I would have thought. And my plan to do a year end recap of the 2022 dramas ended up unfulfilled. Let's combine the overview for 2022 and the current dramas of last week into one post!
2022: The year where, apparently, female power made a combat
What was the most memorable dramas of this year for me? Of course it has to be some of the more surprising "girl power" type stories. Granted, due to my preference, I am referring to the costume dramas.
The most notable, probably because it was the last one to finish before the year ended, was New Life Begins, where there wasn't one iota of female in-fighting that didn't get resolved somehow. It was a story of how a group of women from different backgrounds became a family and supported one another. The story was set in a fictious kingdom where the eight minor kingdoms had to offer up a girl of marriageable age to be married to one of the ruling kingdom's princes. Obviously, the resolution to some of the most complicated issues on the male/female gender roles were glossed over fairly quickly and solved without any conflicts. It had a very large cast of characters...so if you ever get confused, here's a handy chart.
The second one that made an impression was A Dream of Splendor.
The main story was about the friendship of Zhao Pan Er, Sun San Niang, and Song Yin Zhang, who all came from what would be considered the peasant class, and all wanting to improve their living situations and status. As the story progress, there are loves that come and go and there are conflicts in business and the relationships of the women. Again, a great sisterhood drama with romance!
Now, the last one doesn't exactly fit the category I've mentioned, but it is a "family" drama, Love Like the Galaxy. And the main reason why I LOVE this particular story, well besides Wu Lei and Zhao Lu Si, was the fact that even though there were palace situations and characters, the emperor rarely did any work. His entire focus in all 56 episodes was to be the main shipper of Bu Yi and Shao Shang.
I know it's a really silly reason to like the drama, but there you have it. Of course, the story was also very good. What really made this drama unique were the eye rolling of Mom and Dad when Grandma went a little money crazy, the unlikely relationship between the empress and the emperor's favorite concubine, and all the other small, what seems like insignificant details, that I really enjoyed.
2022: Also the year I spent a lot of time watching Korean revenge dramas
This was the year where I finally discovered Korean revenge dramas, an accidental discovery because I was looking for crime dramas. Obviously, the most violent was Insider, which told the story of Kim Yo Han and how he fell into a series of tragic circumstances after agreeing to go undercover in a prison.
Now, there are a lot of wild plots, including a casino being run inside the prison and everything else afterwards. It was action packed with all sorts of plot twists, back stabbing, secrets, and SO many dead people.
The next one that made an impression was Again My Life, which was a rebirth story of a prosecutor who was assassinated by the big boss that he was investigating. I found that I really liked the way Lee Joon Gi looks, so hot.
I'm usually not a big fan of rebirth dramas, but this one was quite interesting. We see both what he has gone through and also the people he missed in the previous life. Despite him already having some previous knowledge of the events that he would encounter, there were still surprises, things that happened out of order or out of time due to the his actions. In the end, this second life even brought him a girlfriend. Of course, this wasn't the end with the death of the Boss. Nope, a second one came to take his place, recruiting the defeated Boss's minions...So looking forward to season 2!
Of course, the best rebirth drama (not Korean) was Reset, starring Bai Jing Ting and Zhao Jin Mai. Or rather I should say it wasn't a rebirth drama, more of a "repeat" drama. Because Reset was about the main characters re-living an event, the explosion of a bus. With each change, He Yun and Shi Qing got more clues to the explosion and the series of events that led up to the reason why the bus exploded. This was extremely fast paced, great methods of reveal with dropping hints that all connected at some point, and at only 15 episodes, it was an unique drama that kept the audience engaged from the very first minute.
This is the end of the recap of 2022, and now onto a couple of shows that are bridging between 2022 and 2023.
History 5: Love in the Future
The last set of stories in this series was over a year ago, and at the end of 2022, the fifth installment premiered. Now...we all know that History 4: Close to You had some serious flaws and I mostly just watched for the 2nd CP, who were super cute. I guess I half expected that the writers would have a little inner reflection and think about what they should put out for the 5th installment. This...was not what I expected.
Tai Che Ni somehow gets transported 22 years into the future to 2022, which apparently was due to some odd ball deity that made a "mistake". And into this new future, he meets Hai Yi, who recently came back from overseas (to track down his disappeared girlfriend) and was going crazy in a quarantine hotel. By the end of episode 1, Che Ni sort of blackmails his way into Hai Yi's home. So I guess we will be getting some co-habitation romance situations from episode 2.
We will have to wait and see how the rest of the story develops. But this is truly an unexpected story line. I guess I will have to wait and see what happens.
The Director Who Buys Me Dinner
Because of my teenage girl brain's love of BL dramas, how could I not start this one? The synopsis was intriguing, which has the quote "We have to date. If we don't, we die." The 10 episodes are definitely not going to be enough to cover the depth these two sentences imply. I've already finished 6 episodes, and I'm still confused as to what the deal is with Dennis and the Director. And why is Dennis even interested in Dong Baek? Because he is the only one who believes in his talent and was nice to him? So many questions...I doubt that will be answered. But the two are pretty cute together.
Unchained Love
I found that this aired on the day I was visiting my relatives...and I still pressed play. I don't know if it's because Wang He Di got some really good acting lessons, or that I'm still impressed with his role in The Love Between Fairy and Devil, but I really, really likes his character in this one. Xiao Duo is the head eunuch in charged of the royal family, who, in the days after the Emperor's death, was to figure out how to get the Emperor's only son away from the Empress's clutches.